The Same Old Game
by AmeliaGallifrey
Summary: Alex, Tony, Kevin and Paula play the old standard, with unintentionally romantic results. Fluffy, Harry Potter-inspired oneshot. Alex/Tony.


Disclaimer: Anything recognisable belongs to either JK Rowling, Val McDermid or Coastal Productions.

**The Same Old Game**

"God, I hate stakeouts."

"Me, too. You didn't even have to do the last one, what are you complaining about?"

"No, I just had to sit in crummy college digs and wait for someone to kill me. Sorry, Tony. No offence."

"None taken."

Quiet descends over the small space, as Kevin cracks his joints and Alex glances sidelong at Tony, silent beside her, staring out at the darkened street beyond the van's windshield.

"Someone sing a song."

"No-one's singing, Kev."

Oh, fine. Let's... let's-"

"Let's just sit here and concentrate-"

"No, come on! Let's play a game."

Alex can't bite back her grin, and Tony's eyes shift just slightly to meet hers. They are twinkling and bright, an impossible blue.

"What game?"

Even Paula is smiling now, punching Kevin lightly on the arm. Kevin, for his part, scrunches his eyes up and thinks, hard.

"Let's play... Sorting!"

"Boring!"

"Fine! Okay... which character are you? Let's play that."

"It's basically the same thing, Kevin."

"No, it's not! Come on, you dull lot!"

Paula groans, Tony looks mildly amused and Alex, leaning forward, is transformed gleeful intrigue.

"All right, then! You first, Kev!"

"Kevin is..." But Paula trails off, perplexed.

"You might be... a Weasley twin?" Alex adds without certainty.

"Which one?"

"George?"

"Well, at least I'm not the dead one."

"Oh, Kev!"

"What? Too soon?"

"Why George?" Paula turns to Alex.

"Because... he's not quite as much of a joker as Fred-"

"And I'm not dead."

"There's got to be more of a reason than that, Alex," Tony chimes.

"This is a serious game, Boss."

"All right. Well... I don't know, maybe you're not George Weasley!"

"Maybe he's Percy?" Paula mumbles.

"Oi! Push off!"

"Kevin is... Ron Weasley."

It's Tony, and this surprises everyone.

"Ron?" Alex asks, her green eyes fixed on Tony's bright blue.

"Yes, he's... brave, and quite clever, at times-"

"Oh, thanks-"

"But he also is, like you said, a bit of a joker, up for a laugh-"

"And he bribes me into doing his paperwork." Paula adds.

"So does that then make Paula Hermione?" Tony mutters, frowning out into the night again.

"I wouldn't mind being Hermione..." Paula says, looking quite pleased, and Kevin's face is strangely unreadable, his cheeks flushed, which only Tony notices.

"Paula's a Ravenclaw, though." Alex counters, and all eyes shift to her. She's smiling, train of thought unravelling in her mind.

"She's absolutely in Ravenclaw. The brightest cop in my nick, aces her performance reviews-"

"Always the first to come up with good counter-arguments to my theories." Tony adds, just catching the minute expression of dejectedness as it slips from Alex's face.

"After you, of course." He murmurs, and she blushes.

"Hermione was almost Sorted into Ravenclaw." Kevin adds, still stuck on the canon fantasy unravelling in his mind.

"I don't think I'm quite as uptight as Hermione, though." Paula shrugs.

"She's not uptight, she's just smart!" Kevin argues, voice pitching with a slight note of hysteria.

"And half-fed up with Ron, probably." Tony notes.

"Half in love with him, more like." Alex murmurs, making Tony grin as Kevin flushes a deeper crimson.

"All right, so I'm Ron, Paula's Hermione... what about Tony?"

It's silent, while everyone thinks, as Tony smiles quite serenely, blue eyes sparkling, and the idea just walks into Alex's head, fully formed and perfect.

"Tony's Dumbledore."

"Dumbledore?!"

"Please explain!"

Alex grins, as Tony gazes innocently at her.

"Dumbledore. Just look at him! Right now, that's a Dumbledore look!"

"So, I'm an ancient gay wizard?" Tony asks, fighting back a bubble of laughter, and Alex shoves his arm, just a little.

"Bright blue, twinkly eyes... you're smarter than the rest of us combined-"

"The bad guys are all scared of you, and not because you'd beat them in a fight." Kevin adds, catching on.

"Half the time you're a thousand miles away, with only your own thoughts for company."

"Scheming and plotting... predicting other people's behaviour..."

"Oh, yeah. You're Dumbledore. For sure." Alex concludes, and Tony just continues to smile sagely, exactly like the former headmaster.

"Your turn, Boss." Kevin says, and Paula begins to hum loudly in concentration.

"Well, you'd be in Gryffindor, that's a start." Kevin suggests, and Tony's eyes light up even more.

"Oh, yes! You're the quintessential Gryffindor, Alex!"

Their eyes meet, and lock, and Alex feels a twinge that could be nerves somewhere in her stomach.

"Your greatest, most defining qualities, Alex, are your courage and your loyalty."

Kevin and Paula share a glance, but Alex can barely draw a breath, heart beginning to slam in her ears.

"So... she's... Ginny Weasley?" Kevin suggests, but Tony's mind is clearly working hard.

"No,.."

"Then... Harry?"

"No, not Harry..."

Alex bites her lip.

"Lily. Lily Potter. Alex, you're Lily Potter."

Paula audibly gasps, as Kevin begins to nod vigorously. Alex's eyes blaze as she holds Tony's gaze, her face on fire.

"That's it, Boss, he's right."

Tony nods, blue eyes suddenly almost wistful, as he elaborates.

"Like I said, you're fearlessly brave and fiercely loyal, as a true Gryffindor should be. You're bright, brilliant... You're admirable, always drawn to do the right thing, by instinct. You're strikingly beautiful and uncommonly kind. You would do anything, sacrifice anything to protect your son. Oh, and your eyes are green."

Silence. Absolute dead silence, rings loudly across the small space. Paula gapes, Kevin grins madly in a quite Ron-like fashion, and Tony just continues to look serenely content, but Alex cannot breathe, cannot think or speak as her eyes burn with tears she struggles to blink furiously back.

"Tony..." She murmurs, staring at him, utterly shipwrecked, and Tony, feeling inexplicably brave, just smiles back.

"Nice one, Tony." Kevin adds, as Paula punches his arm again.

"Which, of course, means I'm not Dumbledore at all."

Everyone remains quiet, watching him, wondering what else he can possibly come up with.

"I'm Snape. The pale, awkward, big-nosed git who fancies her. Or, err, you."

He nods, looking quite hopelessly innocent, and it is all Alex can do not to hurl herself right into his arms.

"Seriously, Tony. Nice one." Kevin mutters, as Tony turns back to look once more out into the night, feeling quite pleased with himself, while Alex stares at her hands, folded in her lap, willing herself not to cry.


End file.
